The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-05-17

some Specimens of several Varieties
Familiar to Most People.

In the more offensive forms Of mild
idiocy there is always this disregard of
the well-being of Others. There is the
peripatetic idiot, who is always stopping
to talk to somebody else in the middle
of the sidewalk or on frequented cor
ner, taking pains to do this when the
streets are fullest of pedestrians. There
is the dramatic idiot, who sits behind or
in front of you at the theater, and keeps
telling his companion what the actors
are going to do next. There is female
species of this genus who may be the
supposed intellectual wife of husband
of well authenticated stupidity, TO whose
enlightenment she devotes during the
progress of the play all her attention.
Her volublity exceeds that of thou
sand-dollar-a-year commercial traveller
and her voice is Of that carrying, Fin
alt, kind that aggrayates the listener
more than the filing Of saw, or pine
splinter vibrating in the winter wind.
Let it be said to the discredt of its sex
that the musical idiot is usually male
If you have an ear for music and it is Il
favorte opera, he takes pains to sit be-
side you, and when the marvellous voice
of the great tenor or the astounding
organ of the wonderful soprano is 20
ing up like Shelley's skylark, he beats
time with his feet and emits harsh, gut
tural sounds that he thinks resembles
the air of the singer. The exquisite
joys Of music are evanescent ut the best
and the musical soul is sensitive to the
slightest dscord. Nothing can be done
with pachyderm of this species. There
are fools and idiots so strangely consti-
tuted that they Will not believe they are
fools and idiots even if you tell them.
His is one of that kind, and the law,
| alas, does not allow you to kill
| him, nor can he be put in dark
cell, like the prisoner of Chillon, and
fed on moldy bread and ainted meat
till his discordant life fifty ends in n
lingering death There are other forms
of musical idiocy which are displayed
in acrobatic feats at untimcly hours on
the piano, in tampering with that ex-
quste instrument, the violin, and in
eliciting ear-piercing sounds from the
flute, But the types are too common
place for scientific classification. So,
also, are those types of idiocy that open
all the windows in midwinter and in
sist on having them all closed in mid.
summer.
| Once in crowded theater the or
chestra ceased its efforts with great
crash and an abrupt silence, and a
shrill voice was borne to the uttermost
parts of the vast auditorium which
said; Il like mine fried in butter. ="
| The incident is mentioned in all the
histories of the period. 1t was one of
those diotic persons, Il female in this
instance, who, when they get to talk.
ing, can be stopped by neither 4 steam
| brake nor the side of mountain. 1t
is a numerous class, and its representa-
tves travel much on the street-cars
and often visit thcaters and concerts,
where they insist on relating their pri-
vate affairs in loud. nerve narrowing
tones. They have the kind of voice
which heard behind you in the street
ever pursues you. maintaining its penc-
trating quality in the universal din long
after its owner has been distanced and
engulfed in the needless crowd. This
class of idiots is most vicious and often
sive. They have an acute form of the
malay transcending anodynes and
anesthetics, and demanding heroic
treatment. Nothing Will suffice but to
extrpatc the present generation and
slaughter their children.
The idiocy of the average boy is of
an exaggcratve kind. 1t can hardly
be classed as mild He might proper
ly be called bowling idiot except that,
not having arrived at the years of dis
erection, he is partially excusable for the
mental alteration which causes him to
violate all the prophecies. A little
later he becomes an adolescent when
his idiocy takes sentimental form,
less disagreeable, though equally sell
fish. The male biped just entering
manhood imagines that he is the GEN.
ter of the solar system and that about
him revolve all the planets and their
moons. He is quite certain about the
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